Shooting garment



Ag. 16, 1960 R. E. ALLEN 2,948,898

' SHOOTING GARMENT Filed July 18. 1957 Qoberl i. aflllen dll'l'om gSHOOTING GARMENT Robert E. Allen, 2-11 Court, Des-'Moines, Iowa FiledJuly 18, 1957, Ser. No..6'72,733

1 Claim; (e1. 2--94 This invention is a shooting garment. that featuresan internal belt to which all the weight carrying pockets. and bags-ofthe coat are secured. By means of this structure many problemspreviously associated with making a desirable shooting coat as forhunting, are minimized or. completely solved.

Before my invention, the problem of how to support a hunting game bag,for example, was a vexing one. If

the bag was secured to the coat directly, it tended to bear on theshoulders of the hunter wearing the coat. This was particularly true ifhe were very successful early in the day and had a substantial amount ofgame to place in the bag. While the weight thus added might seem trivialwhen lifted once, it could become very burdensome lifted over and overagain all day long. This is particularly true when the weight of game isadded to the weight of the gun. This need to lift more than the weightof the gun naturally has an undesirable effect on the accuracy of thehunters shooting. Not only would his arms be generally more tired, andtherefore, incapable of holding the gun on target, but there is also anoticeable tendency to over-control the gun. Over-controlling isparticularly troublesome when the hunter has an opportunity to empty thegame bag during a day of hunting. Everyone has experienced thephenomenon of lifting something higher than intended because it islighter than expected. Sometimes a separately supported game bag wasused to attempt to avoid this difiiculty. When the bag was supported byshoulder straps, however, the problems remained about the same. If anattempt were made to support the bag on a belt worn outside the coat, itboth bound the shoulders of the hunter and made it difficult to get intothe pockets of the coat in which shells are carried. This latter resultwas particularly bad, from the hunters point of view, since the numberof shells that may be carried in the gun is limited to a rather smallnumber in the United States. A hunter might well wish to reload his gunin a hurry and miss a good shot if his attempt to get a new shell out ofa shell pocket is slowed down. When the bag was supported on a belt thatfitted under the coat, it was awkward to get into, as anyone one knowswho has tried to get into pants pockets when he has on an outer coat.

Accordingly it is the principal object of my invention to provide anovel hunting coat, one that:

(1) Allows great freedom of motion and increases shooting accuracy.

(2) Does not restrict access to shell pockets.

(3) May have the hunting bag removed easily.

(4) Minimizes the weight applied to the shoulders of the hunter.

(5) Is not bizarre in appearance.

While the foregoing specifically listed ones are my main objects ininventing this shooting garment, it is my intention to include asobjects hereof any that would be clear to an artisan in this field afterhe has read this Patented Aug. 16, 1960 ice specification and examinedthe accompanying drawings which are briefly. described as follows:

Fig. 1 is a'front elevation of the coat on a person with aportion of thefront ofjthe garment held open to show the internal belt;

Fig. 2 is a three-quarter side and rear elevation at a slightly reducedscale from that used in Fig. l; a portion of the rear of. the coat isbroken away to illustrate its construction more fully;

Fig. 3.is a-horizontal sectionof the coat taken on the line 33 of'Fig.1; the scale is larger than, that used in Fig.1; and

Fig. 4.is apartial vertical section of the coat taken on the .line 44:ofFig. 2. but, drawntothe scale of Fig. 3.

Inthe drawings, and particularly Figures 1, 3 and 4, the invention maybeseen as applied to a hunting coat and to consist of the combination ofthe coat 10, the internal belt 12, and the variouspockets and bags orpouches supported by it, as willbe, detailed below. This structure mayalso be applied advantageously to shooting garments of the type worn fortarget shooting. It is particularly useful for target shooting garmentsof the type worn while shooting at moving targets such as skeet andother forms of trap shooting. Belt 12 is secured to the coat 10 by meansof the rivet or stud buttons 14 arranged with the buttons on the outsideof the coat which may be covered by a weather shedding element 16. Thusthe belt and the buttons are secured directly together with the coattrapped in between them. Game bag or pouch 18 is provided withbuttonholes that match the buttons 14 so that it can be secured to thecoat and belt at will. Likewise it may be removed easily. The bottom ofthe pouch may be held in close to the coat by suitable means, such asthe snaps 20. At the front of the coat are the pockets 22 and, in Fig.3, 24 that are commonly used to carry extra shells and are known asshell pockets. While these pockets would not need to carry any veryheavy load in a hunting coat, the average hunter generally carries alongmany times the amount of ammunition he actually is likely to use. Forthis reason, the shell pockets actually carry substantial weight. In thecase of target shooting, it is not uncommon to provide space for atleast one box of shells and sometimes two. In order to have this weightcarried by the belt also, there are belt loops 26, and in Fig. 3 thereare belt loops 28 that are secured to the inside of the coat adjacentthe shell pockets 22 and 24. Thus when belt 12 is tightened about thewaist of the user, all of the weight that in ordinary shooting garmentsis thrown on the shoulders of the wearer is carried on the hips insteadby means of the belt 12. By using the belt loops 26 and 28, however,instead of securing the belt to the coat directly and permanently as bystitching, some freedom of the coat relative to the belt is allowed.Thus the shown structures permit very great freedom of movement of thehunter wearing the coat with a corresponding improvement in shootingaccuracy. Also the hunter is much less tired over a long period of timethan is true when his shoulders are carrying game and extra shells.Further, the load applied to the shoulders in lifting the gun toshooting position remains constant throughout the day. Changes inweight, by reason of first carrying game and shells and then unloadingpart of the burden are not felt at shoulder level. On the other hand,the inside belt does not get in the way of getting shells out of theshell pockets. Also, of course, it is possible to loosen the belt atrest periods when the game bag can be supported on a log or the like orat the end of the shooting day when the hunter or other shooter istramping back to his car. In this manner the hips may be relieved of theload they have been carrying.

It is not necessary to remove the coat in order to be comfortablesit-ting, either. When one wishes to sit, as in the car going from oneshooting location to another, the game bag may be removed easily. It isnecessary only to unsnap the snaps 20 and unbutton the buttons 14 inorder'to remove the game bag.

I have disclosed my invention by describing and showing a practicalembodiment of it. I now point out with the particularity required bystatute the structure that I believe to be my invention in the followingclaim.

I claim:

A hunting coat extending from the shoulders to below the hips of thewearer and having vertically disposed fastening means at the front forsecuring the coat to gether about the wearer, a belt disposed entirelywithin said coat, means on said belt at the front for securing said beltabout the waist of the wearer, spaced fastening means extending throughsaid belt and coat and project ing outwardly of the rear outer surfaceof said coat, said last named fastening means being disposed only acrossthe rear portion of said coat to fix the rear portion only of said beltagainst movement relative to said coat, a game bag detachably securedalong the upper edge to the projecting portions of said last namedfastening means and extending downwardly therefrom on the rear portionof said coat, means for detachably securing the lower edge of said gamebag to said coat, pockets on opposite sides of said coat disposed belowsaid belt and a belt loop secured to the inner surface of said coatintermediate the width of each pocket with said belt threaded throughsaid loops, whereby the weight of said pockets and said game bag issupported substantially entirely from said belt with said coat in eitheropen or closed condition.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS454,770 Robinson June 23, 1891 796,711 Ferguson Aug. 8, 1905 939,871Sherman Nov. 9, 1909 1,723,214 Smith Aug. 6, 1929 1,905,235 MandelertApr. 25, 1933 1,959,331 Bour May 22, 1934 2,272,041 Pocock Feb. 3, 19422,368,654 Frank Feb. 6, 1945 2,443,447 Falcon June 15, 1948 2,507,322Smith May 9, 1950

